Screen assemblies are ubiquitous in the downhole drilling and completions industry for enabling solids or particulate to be filtered from a flow of fluid, e.g., hydrocarbons, while enabling production of the fluid. Production and stimulation rates through the screen assemblies can be generally increased by increasing the size of the screen assembly. Additionally, it is well established that certain radial clearances between the outer dimension of the screen assembly and the inner dimension of the casing (or other tubular string) in which the screen assembly is positioned must be maintained in order to support stimulation and/or production at appropriate rates. For example, if the radial gap is undesirably small, there is a severe risk of premature screen outs and/or the sand or particulate in a frac or gravel pack bridging off before filling the annulus about a screen assembly. For the above reasons, it is established practice in the industry to use screen assemblies having dimensions that are significantly smaller than the drift diameter of the casing in order to maintain the aforementioned radial clearance in the range of about at least 0.5 inches.
Although maintaining the radial clearance is necessary to support industry accepted production and stimulation rates, it also puts a limit on the maximum possible size of the screen assemblies, which negatively impacts these same rates. The simultaneous use of a larger screen assembly and maintenance of the radial clearance is only possible in these prior systems by using larger casing, but this requires greater material costs and potentially a larger borehole. In view hereof, it is clear that the industry would well receive a system that enables larger screen assemblies to be used within a given size of casing without negatively affecting production and stimulation rates, e.g., by reducing the size of the radial clearance between the screen assembly and the casing to an unacceptable level.